PEORIA — A police raid of a West Bluff home seeking the author of a parody Twitter account about Mayor Jim Ardis was an intrusive, overly aggressive tactic that targeted a form of protected speech.

Several scholars and attorneys who specialize in First Amendment rights around the country questioned the pursuit of criminal charges for a fake social media account two days after plainclothes police executed a search warrant at 1220 N. University St. and seized several electronic devices with Internet access.

“If you were intent on unmasking an anonymous tweeter, there are ways to do that short of the blunt instrument of a search warrant,” said Chip Babcock, a Texas attorney who lists among his clients the Chicago Tribune, Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions Inc. and Phil McGraw, more commonly known as television’s Dr. Phil.

“It doesn’t give the person against whom it is directed an opportunity to contest it ahead of time,” as a subpoena would, Babcock said. “It is certainly an over-aggressive tactic when dealing with a speech issue.”

The account in question was created in late February or early March with the handle @Peoriamayor and used a photo of Ardis in a bio that proclaimed pride in serving the city. The bio additionally listed the real mayor’s city email address.

The content of the tweets — as Twitter posts, which are limited to 140 characters, are known — began ambiguously but quickly concentrated on expletive-laden rants about sex and drugs.

By about March 10, the sparse bio space was changed to label the account as a parody. Ardis sought a police investigation into the matter anyway, according to documents with a search warrant return filed Thursday in Peoria County.

Through two search warrants to Twitter and Internet provider Comcast, investigators had determined the alleged address where the @Peoriamayor account was created by April 1, the documents stated.

Twitter suspended the account in late March, weeks before the search warrant to seize the electronic devices was executed just after 5 p.m. Tuesday. The account had about 50 tweets and just as many followers.

“There’s a line here that was not just crossed, but vaulted over,” Ardis told the Journal Star Editorial Board on Thursday in describing his motivation to seek the criminal investigation. He has not responded to messages from a reporter.

The outrageousness of the tweets, however, possibly makes them more qualified as parody — and more protected as free speech.

“The simple and clear-cut answer is that parody is protected speech, particularly if it involves a public official. Even if the intent is to harm the official,” said Larry Burriss, a professor of journalism at Middle Tennessee State University. “But there is a kind of sliding scale: the more famous the person, the more outrageous the parody can be, so long as it is obvious it is a parody.”

Page 2 of 2 - Burriss and others who responded to a Journal Star request for comment cited the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Hustler v. Falwell that found even “intentional infliction of emotional distress” is protected so long as there is some minimal level of public policy or debate on public policy involved.

“And in the case of a mayor, there is obviously a public policy dimension,” Burriss said.

Jeremy Mishkin, co-chair of the litigation department at the law firm Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads in Philadelphia, added one caveat. He cautioned that the format of entries on Twitter could leave doubt as to the intent of the content creator.

“Parody depends on the reader understanding that it’s a joke — and that can be a very tricky matter with online communications,” Mishkin said. “Context matters a great deal, and Twitter’s 140-character limit makes context more difficult to establish.”

A partner with the firm Arent Fox in Washington, D.C., further pointed out that the @Peoriamayor account did not fully comply with Twitter’s terms for parody accounts from the outset. Ross Buntrock, however, doubted any charges — police are investigating the matter as a misdemeanor violation of “false personation of a public official” — would hold up in court.

“This looks like a classic case of small-town justice being delivered,” Buntrock said.

Matt Buedel can be reached at 686-3154 or mbuedel@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @JournoBuedel.